Hatem Ben Arfa is the sort of footballer fans adore and managers describe as challenging. In no particular order he has, variously, scored the best goal Alan Pardew has ever seen, flown to Tunis instead of playing for the reserves and announced that he does not quite share the same philosophy as his manager.

The France international believes Pardew should construct the entire team around his mercurial talents but, muttering darkly about Ben Arfa's need to "work harder", Newcastle United's manager regards him more as an "impact" substitute.

Whether he begins on the bench, the right wing or in the hole, there can be little doubt that a former Marseille player Alan Shearer infamously told a Match of the Day audience he had never heard of is a game changer.

Ben Arfa certainly changed this one following his first‑half introduction as a replacement for the injured Yohan Cabaye. Although this was far from a vintage Newcastle performance, Ben Arfa's decision to pledge international loyalty to France rather than Tunisia means he needs to be making headlines; here he altered a freezing afternoon for the better.

"Hatem was absolutely terrific, we've got him coming alive – and his work-rate was fantastic," said Pardew, forgetting, temporarily, all those moments which explain why he routinely describes Ben Arfa as "high maintenance".

So why not name him in the starting lineup? "I was tempted," said Newcastle's manager. "But I felt that, by putting Ryan Taylor wide on the right, the balance of the team would be better. As things turned out it wasn't working and the injury to Yohan pre-empted what I was going to do anyway."

Ben Arfa's advent coincided with Newastle switching from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 with the newcomer deployed to the right of Shola Ameobi and Leon Best. "Hatem Ben Arfa looks a very skilful player," said Mark Hughes, the QPR manager. "Very accomplished."

Displaying exquisite touch, adhesive control, superior vision, perfect balance and elusive movement, Ben Arfa's arrival also prefaced Newcastle reverting to something resembling more of a subtle pass-and-move game rather than the overly direct approach they had initially adopted.

During the game's opening stages it looked as if some of Pardew's players had not only swallowed the – almost certainly false – stories that the striker Andy Carroll could soon be on his way back to Tyneside from Liverpool but seemed to believe that he had already been restored to the attack.

A man of strong convictions, Ben Arfa is not only noted for a disdain of reserve football – his bodyswerving of the second string in favour of attending to vital family business in Tunis came during his recovery from the badly broken leg which sidelined him for more than a year – but his loathing of the long ball.

Although Pardew is, by British standards at any rate, something of a purist who bought Cabaye in order to get his team playing more of a thoughtful possession game, Ben Arfa has said he would much prefer it if the manager took things further and emulated Swansea City.

While the reality of the positional discipline and team shape imposed by Brendan Rodgers might come as a bit of a shock, Ben Arfa's demand to receive the ball at grass height, coupled with an enthusiasm for playing short passes and dispatching low crosses, made things appreciably easier on the eye on Sunday.

The problem is that sometimes he reminds you of the less fabulous downside of Middlesbrough's Juninho. Superb as the former Brazil player was Juninho had a tendency to either not release the ball sufficiently quickly or attempt to sashay beyond one marker too many.

Following last weekend's wondrous slalom run and sublime goal (the best Pardew has seen) against Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup here, Ben Arfa occasionally fell into a similar trap.

Such moments, though, were far outweighed by the glorious cameo when, courtesy of an impeccable touch and impudent feint he nonchalantly bisected two markers before unleashing a through ball Pardew's strikers proved unequal to. Then there was the low cross too clever for Ryan Taylor to read.

Such incidents highlight another similarity between Juninho and the Frenchman; their ability to spy openings others cannot dictates that there is also a danger of them operating on an entirely different wavelength from certain team-mates.

"For a lot of players defending and being diligent is 90% of their game," said Pardew. "For Hatem it's different, flair and making things happen is 80% of his game." Small wonder Newcastle fans – now given to chanting Ben Arfa's name louder and longer than anyone else's – invariably forgive him for the odd less than assiduous off-the-ball interlude. Pardew could do far worse than build his team's European challenge around Newcastle's game-changer.